1856 G$1 Slanted 5 PR65 Ultra Cameo NGC....

"When the same coin appeared [in the Starr Collection] of U.S. coins (Lot 1085), the following commentary was included in the description:

'Breen has speculated that the Upright 5 [1856 gold dollar] variety was coined first, using the Half Dime date logotype, and that the Slanting 5 variety followed, using the Quarter Eagle date logotype. The former is known only from one or two obverse dies while the latter accounts for 24 dies. It is equally possible that the Upright 5 variety was the last to be struck, and not the first. When the date designs of all federal coinages struck 1855-1856 are examined it is clear that there was a trend away from the Slanting 5 design in favor of the Upright 5 for all denominations. There are some exceptions (the 1856 Gold Dollar and the 1856 large cent are the only two), but all others (save the 1855 Half Dime and Eagle, both of which had Upright 5's in 1855) show italic 5's in their dates in 1855 but upright ones in 1856. In this scenario, the 1856 Upright 5 Proof Gold Dollar was struck as an example of the new date adopted for the denomination in 1856.'

"Clearly, our research definitively supports the latter proposition: that the 1856 'Upright 5' gold dollar came after and not before the 'Slanting 5' gold dollar variety. After examining all U.S. coin denominations in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution and the American Numismatic Society, it is irrefutable that the 5 in all denominations of U.S. coinage was italic between 1850 and 1856, and that upright, non-italic date logotypes followed their slanting counterparts."